


Safe & Sound

by Baroness_Blixen



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s08e021 Existence, F/M, Fluff, family fic, mulder and scully are allowed to be parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 22:18:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15325590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baroness_Blixen/pseuds/Baroness_Blixen
Summary: His whole world is in this apartment and Mulder realizes how much he could have missed. Set in/after "Existence".





	Safe & Sound

He’s been here a hundred times. A million, maybe. He’s never kept count. Scully’s apartment has always felt like a home to him; hers and now, maybe, his. Tonight as he steps inside, it feels like a new world. A kind of hush clings to the walls, to the furniture. A new smell, softer and warmer, flies through the air. Mulder is not able to catch it. He walks inside, stuffs the keys into his pocket. They press into his thigh, reminding him how new this is. He doesn’t remember how long he’s had Scully’s key. The times he’s used it? He might be able to put a number on that. 

His feet move without direction; he knows exactly where he needs to go, where he wants to be. His son. No book has prepared him for the avalanche of emotion that broke over him the first time he saw the baby in Scully’s arms, red and squishy, wailing. In that moment time stopped. One look at Scully, at their child and he knew. A new chapter was about to begin. 

He’s seen William before, of course. In the hospital, clean and perfect, swaddled in a blanket, but far away. Then here, in his new home, in Scully’s bedroom with his eyes half open, still unseeing, trying to glimpse what all of this is about. Not that Mulder has any clue. For his son’s sake he will figure it out. At least he’s got Scully by his side. She, he knows that much, will know exactly how to do this, what to do. His lip curls upwards, his heart jumps just thinking about her. About kissing her again, maybe. But that will have to wait.

There’s a soft noise coming from the nursery and Mulder follows it. It’s a soft gurgle, one that almost sounds like a laugh and Scully would roll her eyes at him reminding him that newborns don’t laugh. Mulder remains in the doorway, reluctant to get in. It’s not Scully in there with their son and if it were anyone but her mother he knows he’d feel jealousy, rage even. His son, a primal voice growls in his mind. He wills it to quiet down. 

“Oh Fox,” Maggie Scully turns to him, a shy, yet happy smile on her face, “Dana said you’d come over. Come in, come in.” He can’t stay away much longer anyway. His eyes long to see, his fingers want to touch. William’s eyes are closed; this new life is exhausting, after all. Mulder can relate, smiles at the sleeping newborn. The mouth, with defiant Scully lips, is half open as if he’d been in the middle of a conversation with his grandmother before he fell asleep. Mulder watches in amazement. He falls in love with every breath William takes, with the gentle twitch of his tiny nose, with the way he makes a little fist.

“He is so beautiful,” Maggie Scully voices his thoughts and he nods. He puts his hand on the warm baby, needs to feel him under his skin. That’s when he notices the blanket William is wrapped up in. His breath catches. 

“It’s cute, isn’t it?” Mulder’s finger follows the shape of one of the foxes that adorns William’s blanket. It’s not a fox on the run; it’s as if the animal was looking out, clever and apprehensive, guarding the little boy. He nods, his throat suddenly tight. 

“We bought it before…you know.” Mrs. Scully has never once talked about his death and miraculous resurrection with him. She only gasped, hugged him tight and told him welcome home. “I knew Dana would make sure the baby knew who you were. I thought he should have something that reminds all of us of you.” Her hand joins his on the boy’s small stomach and their fingers touch. Neither he nor Scully have ever said the word, to each other or to anyone else. Yet everyone, including her mother and Skinner, assumed what Mulder’s role in all of this was. A father. That’s who he is now, too. 

“Go take your son and join Dana. I didn’t have the heart to wake her, but he’ll be hungry soon.” Your son. Two small words that mean the world. They fall from her lips easily, feel like a blessing. He nods, shyly, lets out a sound caught between a cry and a laugh. He puts his hands under the small body; he weighs next to nothing, this miracle of theirs. But he inhabits his whole heart, his soul. He feels Maggie Scully’s eyes on him as he cradles the baby in his arms. He takes small steps; Scully’s bedroom seems to be in another dimension. She is on her back, fast asleep. Another wave of love washes over him. Once upon a time he wasn’t sure he would ever feel this. Whether he even deserved it. He looks down at William, at the foxes on his blanket.

“Not running away,” Mulder mumbles. He puts down the newborn next to Scully, lies down beside him. He watches them both, his new, his whole, world. 

“Mulder?" 

"Shh, yeah, it’s me. And William,” he answers in a whisper. Scully opens her eyes, two pools of blue. 

“Hm, my mother?”

“She’s still here,” he tells her, “she took care of William.”

“I forgot about that blanket.” Scully says, her voice laced with sadness. “My mom insisted on buying it. I cried every time I saw it and made her take it home with her.”

“I’m so sorry, Scully.”

“No, I’m glad she bought it. Look at him,” Scully chuckles, sighs, “safe and sound swaddled in a fox blanket.”

“Not sure a fox is a good parent.” She touches his cheek and he looks at her. 

“Foxes are great parents, actually. And I know this one fox who will be the best.”

“Does that make you a vixen?” Before she can answer, William coos, tries to open his eyes. Mulder watches as Scully begins to nurse the baby and he never wants to leave again, ever.


End file.
